Port Gamble S’Klallam tribal member Ron Charles has co-authored a book focused on his tribe’s historic fight for their treaty rights through the lens of his own life story, growing up on the Port Gamble S’Klallam Reservation and becoming a tribal leader.
“It is our hope that through sharing the treaty rights fishing history of our community, we can illustrate the importance of our fishing rights and educate a broader audience about the role and continued work of the tribes in the management of our fisheries, which is what preserves our treaty fishing rights today,” Charles wrote.
Charles collaborated with Josh Wisniewski, an anthropologist who has been working with the tribe on several historical research projects since 2011, to produce the book. With skills as an interviewer, historian and editor, Wisniewski helped record and publish Charles’ oral history of the tribal community and its relationship with treaty rights, providing additional historical framing and background as needed.
The book digs into the tribe’s history from treaty times in the mid-1800s, through the Fish Wars of the 1960s and 1970s, impacts from the Boldt decision era, Charles’ experience as a fisherman after Boldt, and how the tribe has grown to have a strong fishing fleet today.
Charles also shares what it was like growing up on the reservation, which was established in 1938, just years before he was born in 1943.
Growing up, Charles learned how to hunt and harvest fish and shellfish in the old ways, he said. He started working for the tribe, eventually becoming tribal chair and for a few years, working concurrently for NWIFC to help other tribes organize their fisheries.
“I am proud of the work I was able to be a part of during those early years, helping the NWIFC, the Point No Point Treaty Council and our tribe’s fisheries department to get up and running,” Charles said.
The title of his book, “My Heart is Good,” is from a quote by Chitsamahhan (also known as Chetzemoka or Duke of York), who was the leader for the S’Klallam during negotiations for the Point No Point Treaty.
The translated quote reads: “My heart is good (I am happy) since I have heard of the paper read, and since I have understood Gov. Stevens, particularly, since I have been told I could look for food where I pleased and not in one place only.”
The book can be purchased at emptybowl.org.
Cover by Empty Bowl Press; Story by Tiffany Royal
